life

Food means different things to different people. To some, it’s seen as a means to an end, to others an enjoyment, and to a select few an obsession. Although food is there to give us energy, the impact it can have on our bodies has meant that it’s easy to become obsessed over. Whether the obsession is taken to the extreme with weight gain or weight loss, it can often mean that an unhealthy view can be taken. However, food also does a lot of good in the world. It keeps us going, it keeps us happy, and it does have the power to transform a negative obsession into something more healthy.

Whether you want to be able to boost your weight loss or gain to get yourself to a healthier weight, you can do it with food. But, there are a few processes that you will need to put in place. First of all, you’re going to want to adjust your mindset. And secondly, you need to be able to see and use food in new ways. By gaining knowledge and happily adjusting your thought habits, you should be able to eat your way to your own healthy weight range using four simple techniques.

Clean Up Your Diet

Purge The Processed Stuff

The first thing that you need to be able to do is to clean up your diet. Because if you’re trying to reach a goal weight, the foods you eat will matter. You will find that filling up on processed foods will not help you here. So you may want to pinpoint the processed foods you can easily remove from your diet, such as salad dressings. As well as some of the most obvious choices like frozen foods or ready meals.

Cook From Scratch

Following on from this, you should also aim to cook from scratch as often as you can. When you’re eating processed or convenience food, you don’t really know what is in the food you’re eating. So you could be eating more calories than you need to be. Likewise, when you eat out a lot or order in, you could be consuming unhealthy calories that you can easily cut out.

Go Green

Then, you should work on filling up on greens a lot more. It’s important to have more fruits and vegetables in your diet and with your meals. This way, you’re getting enough nutrients in and helping to keep yourself full. So work on adding more leafy greens to your diet if you’re looking to make healthier changes to what you’re eating.

Read The Labels

You will also find that reading the labels on everything you buy will help you to clean up your diet too. Sometimes, there’s a lot more in the food that you eat that you realize. But when you make a habit of reading the labels, you’ll be able to figure out what products you should drop from your diet, as well as getting to know what is in the food that you eat.

Focus On The Macros

Get The Balance Right

The macronutrient makeup of your meals is important. If you’re looking to maintain a healthy weight, or get there, you’re going to need to monitor your macros and ensure that you have the balance between carbohydrates, fats, and proteins just right. If it’s fat loss that you’re after, you need to ensure that your macros work towards fat burning to help you get on the right track.

Play With Your Portions

However, you may realize that not every piece of advice you get on macros and the right balance will work for you. So, you have to be able to play around with your portions in order to find out what works best for you. Because everyone’s body will respond differently to different macro make ups. You need to be able to work with the right percentage of each in order to get your body to respond well.

Switch Up The Ingredients

But you’re also going to want to think about the actual food choices you’re making for each macro. You need to be able to choose good combinations between carbs, fats, and proteins that will work well together, without sticking to the same meals all of the time. So make sure you alternate between ingredients if you’re hoping to get the best results.

Food For Fuel

See Food Differently

However, the way that you’re going to be able to ensure that you can make the right changes to the way you eat is also in your mind, and not just with your food choices themselves. If you’re wondering how long does it take to lose weight? you’re going to need to work on your mental state as well as your choices. To do this, you should try to see food as fuel, rather than an indulgence, to help yourself get on the right track.

Time Your Meals Well

To do this, you should ensure that you’re working with timing when you eat. If you want to be able to get the most amount of energy out of your food, it’s important to eat the right things at certain times of the day – especially when you’re exercising. And you’re going to want to tailor your macros to this too. You may find that low carb evening meals will help you here, depending on your overall goals.

Listen To Your Body

A huge part of making this work for you is to listen to your body. It’s easy to see food as a pleasure source as well as fuel, and cravings can often control this. But you need to be able to identify emotional hunger vs. real hunger. Real hunger can be satisfied by any food and will come on gradually, so try to weed out emotional cravings and focus on fuel.

And Don’t Forget The Snacks

Then, you’re also going to want to work with some energy boosting snacks. When it’s an energy boost you’re after, things like bananas and nuts are great. You will often find that snacking smart can also ensure that you eat well and make healthier meal choices.

Be Smart With Your Habits

Portion Size

Sometimes, it’s not the food that you’re eating that’s the problem, but the portion size. When you’re looking to lose weight, you should bring these in, and if you need to put on weight, you should focus on larger portions. But it’s all relative. You just need to learn to be smarter with the size of your portions.

Eating Environment

Next, you should think about your eating environment. This is one of the most important areas of how your mind and body connect. Because where you eat can affect how much you eat, and your digestion. So always try to eat at a table and focus on your food, rather than mindlessly eating while doing another task, as that can cause you to overeat.

Eating Mindfully

To work with that last point, and not against it, and to really ensure that you can eat your way to a healthy weight, you should work on eating mindfully. By eating more mindfully, you’re more aware of how you eat, your habits, and how to ensure you have a healthy relationship with food. To do this, you will find that eating in silence helps, so does chewing a certain amount of time, or using your other hand to hold the utensils. The aim is to be more aware of yourself eating so that you can stop when you’re full, enjoy the meal, and take a healthier approach to eating in general.

Ally Gonzales is the founder & editor-in-chief of RunningSoleGirl. Along with blogging she is also juggling attending college and majoring in Exercise and Sports Science with a Sports Management minor.

While often used as a comedic device, the idea of being able to “walk off” an injury is nevertheless a persistent one. Trip and fall while out running? Walk it off! Stretch too far during a yoga class? Walk it off! However, here are some reasons you shouldn’t walk off an injury.

The whole idea is based on a fundamental lack of understanding about the human body. While there are some injuries which are temporary – momentary spasms of pain that will recede on their own – there is a huge threat caused by trying to “walk off” an injury that can’t be walked off. Of course, you have no way of knowing if the injury you have sustained can be walked off before you try it – but what happens if you give it a go, and what harm are you doing if you’ve calculated incorrectly?

Think About R.I.C.E.

You’re more than likely aware of what “R.I.C.E” means in an injury capacity, but if not, let’s be clear – it’s not this:

What it actually stands for is the way that you should handle an injury:

R – RestI – IceC – CompressionE – Elevation

While you might think you will always know which injury needs the R.I.C.E. treatment and which doesn’t, you’re probably incorrect. R.I.C.E. is not just for those sudden, sharp injuries like turning your ankle – it should also be used for gradual stress injuries, that you might not even notice are building up.

As a rule, if you feel persistent pain – no matter how mild – in any area of your body, it needs to be R.I.C.E-d.

However, learning about the AlgaeCal plant calcium side effects and researching the latest exercise techniques does not mean that you have the power to see into the future. How do you know the pain you’re experiencing in the moment is the kind that won’t benefit from rest?

Put simply: you don’t. It’s great that you have educated yourself on the supplements you should be taking if you exercise regularly and know your way around dealing with workout aches and pains, but you can’t predict the future. It’s far better to stop the moment you feel pain and make a clear-headed assessment of what’s happening to you.

Pain Isn’t Embarrassing

As mentioned at the beginning of this article, the “walk it off” line is often used in comedic terms – i.e. someone walks into a door and is told to “walk it off”. This suggests that pain is an embarrassment, the fault of the person who is feeling the pain.

This isn’t the case. It might be embarrassing to trip over while running, but the pain itself should never be a cause for shame. Bodies go wrong. We make mistakes, miscalculate, and hurt ourselves – it’s completely natural. What is embarrassing is trying to carry on when your body is telling you to stop, thereby inevitably making life worse for yourself. Don’t fall into this trap; if something hurts, stop, evaluate, and then make a decision on how to proceed – no matter what anyone else thinks.

Ally Gonzales is the founder & editor-in-chief of RunningSoleGirl. Along with blogging she is also juggling attending college and majoring in Exercise and Sports Science with a Sports Management minor.

The early days of weight loss are arguably the most difficult. Not only are you getting used to exercising again after a certain period of time, but you’re probably adjusting your diet so that unhealthy food doesn’t hinder your progress. However, it’s easy to lose your motivation if, after a few weeks of healthy habits, there has been no change on the scales. Losing weight is a long process, but it can boost your enthusiasm if you see visible changes on the scales, or in your dress size. So here are a few ways to give your weight loss a boost, no matter where you are on your journey.

Fat-burning foods

No matter what adjustments you make to your diet, the one thing you must never do is cut out food altogether; just as a car won’t get very far on an empty tank of gas, your body won’t function well without the energy it makes from food. Instead, you can boost your weight loss by eating food that gives your body the vitamins it needs, without adding to your weight woes. Avocados, almonds, and sweet potato are all fat-burning foods that curb your appetite for several hours and keep you full of energy for longer. They’re also full of good fats that help you burn calories at the gym later.

Supplements

If you’re eating a more nutritional diet, then supplements might not do much for you. However, shakes and supplements are good if you’re temporarily trying to replace meals to kick start weight loss. When the body has no calories to burn, it enters a metabolic process called ketosis; which means that your body starts burning fat to make energy. For the first week or so of your weight loss process, you can look into meal replacements or buy Isagenix to lose weight. Meal replacement shakes will give your body the nutrients it needs to stay healthy, while still allowing your body to enter ketosis. Meal replacements are also good as a post-workout meal in the evenings; as your body doesn’t have to waste energy on digesting solid food.

HIIT

There’s so much debate whether cardio or weight training exercises are the best way to burn fat and build muscle. The truth is, the best kind of workout incorporates both. When you join a High Intensity Interval Training class you combine 30 seconds of weights and 30 seconds of cardio in three-minute increments for a 30-minute workout. It’s intense, but it can fit into even the busiest schedules, targets all your muscles, and has been shown to zap more belly fat than steady-paced moderate workouts. In addition to reducing body fat and improving muscle tone, HIIT helps to boost your metabolism. So you keep burning fat after your workout is complete.

Drink more water

Drinking water helps to boost your metabolism, cleanse your body of waste, and acts as an appetite suppressant. Also, drinking water helps your body stop retaining water, leading you to drop those extra pounds of water weight.

Ally Gonzales is the founder & editor-in-chief of RunningSoleGirl. Along with blogging she is also juggling attending college and majoring in Exercise and Sports Science with a Sports Management minor.

The older you get, the more your lifestyle habits will change. After you’ve reached 50, you’ll realize that you’ll need much more effort to achieve the same health and fit goals than you needed when you were in your 30s. Everything from your hormones to your cardiovascular system will suffer some defining changes due to menopause and many other processes in your body. Therefore, you’ll need to acquire different lifestyle habits that will make life in your 50s amazing.

Stay Active

Just because you’ve come to a certain age it doesn’t mean you should stop working out. However, you should consider a less intense workout session, that will adapt to your abilities. If you loved jogging in the morning, feel free to continue with a daily workout. According to newest research, running strengthens the knees, so don’t skip on your daily exercise. What’s more, cut the risk of Alzheimer’s disease to a minimum and enjoy 30 minutes of walking every day. You could also ride a bike, or even do gardening 5 days a week to lower the risk of memory and cognitive problems.

Cut Back on Salt

The older you are, the higher the risk of developing hypertension. Blood vessels become less elastic as we age, so you’re more likely to get high blood pressure if you don’t take care of your food intake. What’s more, hypertension is the well-known trigger to more serious health problems, such as kidney disease, heart failure, stroke, heart attack and even death. Therefore, cut back on salt, avoid processed foods as much as possible and turn to vegetables, fruit, and whole grains.

Have Enough Sleep

A good night’s sleep is imperative for good health. Therefore, if you’ve noticed that your sleeping schedule has significantly changed, it’s time to talk to a doctor about it and check your health. Less than seven hours of sleep a night isn’t enough for your body to recover from the previous day. If you’re experiencing insomnia, try to exercise more, and drink less alcohol. Be sure to talk to your doctor and see if you need to change something else in your daily life. Insomnia can also be a sign of anxiety, so feel free to consult an expert and see if you might have an underlying problem of anxiety or depression.

Have Your Vitamins in Check

A healthy diet is essential for a healthy life. This is especially true in your 50s since your body isn’t able to process the same amount of unhealthy food and substances it used to. Therefore, make sure you have your levels of iron in check. Women should pay special attention to iron since the need for it decreases as a woman enters menopause. Too much iron can cause liver or heart disease, so keep the levels in check. Add vitamin B12 to your daily supplements to support your blood cells and promote healthy nerves.

Socialize

Keeping in touch with friends, and having someone to socialize with is essential for good mental health. After your children have left the nest and you’ve retired, you’ll have plenty of free time on your hands, and get a chance to meet new people. Consider visiting retirement villages in NSW, because you can find a lot of people your age who can help you pass the time of day. Moving into a retirement resort will give you the chance to have a whole day filled with various activities, interact with many wonderful people, and enjoy your golden age.

Every decade of our life requires specific lifestyle changes. As you enter your 50s, it’s time to start taking care of your vitamin intake and lead an active life. Also, socialize as much as possible, have enough sleep and cut back on unhealthy foods to live a long and healthy life.

Diana Smith is a full time mom of two beautiful girls interested in topics related to health and alternative medicine. In her free time she enjoys exercising and preparing healthy meals for her family.

When it comes to leading a healthier lifestyle, it is all about the habits that you get into. Many people often go through healthy phases, where they engage in a sudden burst of physical activity or fad diet before they quickly slip back into their old patterns. If you can build some healthier habits into your day-to-day life, you are much more likely to be on the fast-track to success. So, let’s take a closer look at just a few of these that are all very achievable for the average person.

Eat Low-Glycemic Carbs Before the Gym

There is often a lot of debate flying around about what you should eat before and after going to the gym. Research has been conducted to show that you can burn more fat with food that metabolizes slowly such as high-fibre cereals, bread, and many vegetables. Whole grains and produce are certainly on the tick-list, while refined foods and sugary drinks should be avoided as they raise your blood sugar and inhibit fat-burning. After you have finished exercising, you should go for foods which are high in protein such as fish, fat-free milk and egg whites, which all help to rebuild muscles.

Don’t Brush Teeth Directly After Meals

You should wait until at least an hour after eating before brushing your teeth as the acids can soften tooth enamel, resulting in teeth becoming more susceptible to damage. As well as this, waiting a little longer will give your saliva a chance to wash away acids and allow the enamel to harden. Visiting a dentist such as www.sdgdental.com.au on a regular basis should be part of your good oral health routine. This way, you can spot any problems that may be occurring and deal with them effectively.

Drink Plenty of Water

Another very simple, yet effective health habit to get into is making sure that you drink plenty of water throughout the day. Water hydrates both your muscles and your brain cells, so it plays a major factor in both your physical and mental wellbeing. Switching to water instead of other sugary drinks can make a significant difference in how your body feels on a day-to-day basis. Try to always carry a water bottle around with you when you leave the house to remind yourself to stay hydrated.

Make Time for Sleep

In today’s incredibly hectic world, it is tempting for many people to sacrifice sleep in favor of all the other commitments that they have. But getting between 7.5 and 9 hours sleep a night is essential in maintaining your physical and mental health. Not only this, if you feel tired, you are much more likely to let all the other healthy habits that you have built up start to slip. Try to remove any disruptive electrical items from your bedroom that may be interfering with your sleep and get into a good nighttime routine so your body gets accustomed to a sleep-wake cycle.

Ally Gonzales is the founder & editor-in-chief of RunningSoleGirl. Along with blogging she is also juggling attending college and majoring in Exercise and Sports Science with a Sports Management minor.

In today’s world, massage therapy is essential for a healthy mind and body. Nowadays the massage chair is regarded as the most important product to be inculcated in daily routine. The regular use of massage chair therapy can help an individual to keep pace with mental and physical wellbeing which in turn would lead to the rejuvenation of the individual’s spirit, mind and body collectively. A good health allows you spend and give quality time to your career and social circle. A lot of research is being conducted in the health sector; and most researchers and experts are of the view that the key to long and healthy life is lifestyle medicine i.e. making simple changes in diet, exercise, and stress management.

A routine use of massage chairs can help achieve the purpose of lifestyle medicine as a key to a healthy and long life. The massage chair is considered as more of a natural therapy that can address ailments without referring to the use of medicines. Before the invention of drugs or surgical procedures, people used massage therapy to treat almost everything. Enlisted in this article are five wonders of massage chair that can help us to keep pace with the healthy and long life.

#1 Quality Sleep Hours:

The active use of massage therapy according to some experts increase the flow of delta waves that is linked to the principle of proper and healthy sleep. Sleep constitutes an important element of a healthy lifestyle. The review of different health reports from recognized health institutes indicates that chronic sleep deprivation can lead to unhealthy symptoms such as weight gain, mood changes and hypertension which is considered as the leading cause of death at young age. Secondly improper sleep routine can weaken the immunity system to combat infections and easily fall prey to diseases. Therefore if you wish to avoid such symptoms and achieve your life goals as you have planned; then you must make the use of massage chair therapy a habitual routine.

#2 Incredibly Reduces Stress and Anxiety:

The two leading causes of early aging can be stated in terms of stress and anxiety especially when it comes to developing countries. In any given year, the anxiety and depression is affecting a huge sum of the population all over the world. If you are suffering from any of the two symptoms; then it is the high time to switch over to the use of massage chair therapy. The use of massage chair helps in the release of dopamine and serotonin which helps to

#3: Combat With Anxiety and Depression:

Massage chair therapy is highly recommended for cancer patients:

Cancer is a terrible disease that badly damages the immune system of human body. Moreover, the painful cancer treatments further affect the combating power of the immune system and render it as the weakest system against the attack of diseases. God forbid if you have cancer, use of massage chair therapy can help you endure long and pain inflicting procedures. Massage therapy is advised to those with weak immune system. Use of massage therapy can enhance the working and power of the immune system. A healthy immune system and a strong will power are prerequisites to combat serious and terrible diseases like cancer.

#4 Boost the immune system:

A simple massage therapy of forty-five minutes can increase the production of white blood cells in the body. White blood cells are considered as the fighter cells that defend the body from the attack of various pathogens. According to the medical experts, just one massage therapy a day is more than enough to yield and measure significant quantifiable changes to the body’s endocrine and immune response. Hence when the body can produce the desired quantity of white blood cells; the immune system is better able to counter sickness.

#5 Reduce Blood Pressure:

This wonder and benefit of the massage chair is no more a secret. The use of massage therapy can boost the working of body’s parasympathetic nervous system; which in turn helps the body to return more quickly to biochemical balance and emotional ease after witnessing a stressful event.

Health and happiness are closely linked, there’s no doubt about that. That’s why it’s almost impossible to improve one without improving the other. This may sound a little odd but think about it – is it really possible to lead a happy and carefree lifestyle if you don’t have your health?

The truth is that health and happiness are connected in a much deeper way than many of us realize; which is why taking wellness (the combination of both) seriously, is so important. The problem is that very few of us actually see our wellness (both physical and mental) as being a priority. However, it should be, as wellness plays an important part in our health and happiness, as well as how our lives play out.

So, with that in mind, it’s important to understand what it takes to boost your wellness; and in doing so, improve both your health and happiness. Because, as we’ve mentioned above, both are closely linked.

Believe it or not, being healthier (and happier) isn’t just about eating better; it’s about being proactive about self-care and ensuring that you put yourself first for once, taking your wants and needs into account. Want to know how to do that? Yes – then read on to learn how to be happier and healthier.…

Ally Gonzales is the founder & editor-in-chief of RunningSoleGirl. Along with blogging she is also juggling attending college and majoring in Exercise and Sports Science with a Sports Management minor.

Most people have dreams of making their own money and using their skills to live. Unfortunately, for most, starting a business is too much work. But, writing a blog isn’t. There isn’t any reason a blog can’t be a business, though. You just need to stick to some critical concepts and ideas that can help you through. And, this post is here to help you by giving you a look into the life of a full-time blogger.…

Ally Gonzales is the founder & editor-in-chief of RunningSoleGirl. Along with blogging she is also juggling attending college and majoring in Exercise and Sports Science with a Sports Management minor.

When we are young, we are constantly told by older relatives that we need to drink more milk – as it will give us strong bones. As with most parental advice, you probably ignored this at the time. But now you are older; you might be thinking a little more about your personal health and fitness, and how you can maintain it. After all, we all want to live long, healthy lives – so we need to take care of our body, so it doesn’t let any of us down.

One part of our bodies that is so integral, but one that we rarely pay any attention to, is the skeleton. It is the basis of our entire body, but we tend to spend more time focusing on the amount of fat or muscle we carry instead. But devoting some time to taking care of your bones can mean you avoid various health problems in the future, like osteoporosis. Not sure where to begin when it comes to healthy bone care? This guide will tell you how to have healthy bones for life.…

Ally Gonzales is the founder & editor-in-chief of RunningSoleGirl. Along with blogging she is also juggling attending college and majoring in Exercise and Sports Science with a Sports Management minor.

Life is the most important gift that anyone could receive. Therefore, it’s essential that you respect your time on this planet and take good care of your health. The more serious you are with a healthy lifestyle, the more joyful your days will be. Don’t let anyone tell you that there’s no point in doing your best after you reach a certain age. As long as you find happiness in every new day, there will be tons of new experiences to enrich your life as well. Here are our best tips to stay healthy and fit after 50.…

Diana Smith is a full time mom of two beautiful girls interested in topics related to health and alternative medicine. In her free time she enjoys exercising and preparing healthy meals for her family.